Thousands in area remain in the dark

About 190 people in the Hazleton area still without electric service as a result of Hurricane Sandy should have power back by tonight, a PPL official said.

Martha Herron, PPL's regional community relations manager, said as of 3:50 p.m. Thursday, the number of people in areas adjacent to Hazleton still without power included 1,585 in White Haven, 3,167 in the Panther Valley, 699 in Frackville and 1,259 in Orwigsburg.

The utility continues to estimate that customers in north-central Pennsylvania, an area that includes communities such as Hazleton, Pottsville, Sunbury, Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Williamsport, should have the last of their outages restored by 11 tonight.

Dave Bonenberger, vice president of distribution operations for PPL Electric Utilities, said there are more crews making repairs than in any previous storm - utility workers from at least 10 different states, including PPL Electric Utilities' sister utilities in Kentucky.

"We continue to make progress," Bonenberger said. "There are more than 5,000 people supporting the restoration effort, including more than 3,000 workers in the field, It is time-consuming, labor-intensive work. We're working around the clock and as hard as we can to get the lights back for everyone as soon as humanly possible. We still expect to have 80 (percent) to 85 percent of affected customers back in service by Friday night."

Rick Deal, from the Schuylkill County Emergency Management Agency, said as of 2:15 p.m. Thursday, 50 Rush Township residents were still without power, but all roads in the township were open.

Herron characterized the outages occurring from "downed trees, multiple broken poles and cross arms on poles and damaged equipment such as transformers."

Of the estimated 400,000 people who lost power from the storm, Herron said approximately 244,000 had power restored, leaving 173,000 still out.

Getting the power back on isn't as simple as reattaching wires to a pole in every case, she said.

"We've had instances when the entire meter was ripped off the house (along with) the line to our facilities," Herron said. "We not only have to repair the line that goes to the road to tap onto our facilities, but put the meter back on the house. We've found transformers in yards."

Of the 190 people in Hazleton still without power, Herron said there were 39 "cases of trouble" like the one she described. In White Haven, there were 47; Panther Valley, 101; Frackville, 50, and Orwigsburg, 76.

Municipal crews trimming downed trees around power lines are in danger, Herron said, because "there's no way to tell a line is energized. It may look damaged, but there still may be current on that line. Crews should wait for PPL tree contractors to do the work."

Herron also said some customers were getting incorrect notifications of power restoration.

"Customers were getting an area estimated restoration time, plus 24 hours," Herron said. "In some cases, customers received incorrect messages saying their restoration time is 11 p.m. Nov. 5. That has been corrected."

Bonenberger said when power outages occur, PPL provides estimated restoration times to allow affected families and businesses to make decisions to minimize the effects of an outage on their lives and operations.

But PPL needed to assess damage and the extent of repairs needed before restoration times could be estimated, he said.

Because of that extensive damage, Bonenberger said PPL initially established "area" estimated restoration times, or target dates and times for a specific region for when PPL believed the last of the affected customers would have power restored.

But those estimates, provided Wednesday, represented a worst-case scenario. Bonenberger said the vast majority of the customers in the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania who received the 11 p.m. Sunday message will be restored by the end of the day today.

"We don't know specifically which customers will be restored by then because the sheer magnitude of the damage means some jobs are not yet scheduled," Bonenberger said "As we update assessments and work plans, we will provide updated ERTs to each customer."

Crews finishing work in one area are being redirected to bolster ongoing efforts in other areas where outages are still located.

Customers in the eastern part of the company's service territory, which includes parts of Bucks and Montgomery counties, the Lehigh Valley and north into Northeastern Pennsylvania, should be restored by 11 p.m. Sunday.

Online:

www.pplelectric.com

jdino@standardspeaker.com

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.

U.S. Homeland Security remains in charge of the fate of Affre Ortega-Beato, 42, of the Dominican Republic, a fugitive and drug suspect captured during Friday’s multi-agency raid in the Buttonwood Street row houses in Hazleton. U.S. Marshals in Scranton
(read more)